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Types of articles published in journals of osteopathy: a quantitative analisys  from 2009 to 2013

Claudio Civitillo ✉ , Massimo Armeni, Massimo Leggio | © Author(s) 2018

GIOSBE Journal 2018 | Vol 4:2

Riceived: 24 Marzo 2018 | Accepted: 02 Maggio 2018 | Published: 05 Luglio 2018

Abstract

INTRODUCTION The purpose of this study was to quantify the types of research articles published in professional journals of Osteopathy with international circulation. METHODS A quantitative analysis was carried out on articles selected from four journals over a period of five years, classified on the basis of the study design. The univariate (ANOVA) analysis was used to investigate the mean differences in terms of number of types of article within the different journals and over the years. RESULTS A final number of 478 articles were included in the study. In particular, (no. = 17; 3.55%) were Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) and (no. = 5; 1.04%) were Controlled Clinical Trials. The articles published more frequently were classified as Clinical practice (no. = 172; 35.98%), followed by Case Reports/Case Series <10 subjects (no. = 68; 14.22%), Narrative Reviews (no. = 61; 12.76%), Cohort Studies (no. = 33; 6.90%), Validation studies (no. = 23; 4.81%), and Clinical Trials >10 subjects (no. = 16; 3.34%). Systematic Reviews were published very rarely (no. = 7; 1.46%), followed by (no. = 1; 0.20%) Case-Control Study. No Meta-Analysis was published. The remaining (no. = 75; 15,69) articles were classified as Others. DISCUSSION This study shows that the methodological quality of journals specifically dealing with Osteopathy is equal to the standards observed in other areas of Medicine. CONCLUSION The distribution of the types of articles in the present sample of journals is not similar to that of other scientific journals, with the exception of Observational/descriptive study designs

Keywords: Osteopathic Medicine; Clinical Research; Evidence–based Practice